FUSE documentation should indicate that the /ipfs and /ipns directories do not show user files

[lonerzzz]

Location

https://github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/blob/master/docs/fuse.md

Probably other locations as well.

Description

The documentation about FUSE and mounting is missing a key detail in that it does not communicate the intent of the mounted file systems. More information is included at https://github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/blob/master/docs/fuse.md and https://discuss.ipfs.io/t/fuse-mountpoint-mini-faq/312, but a person has to do a lot of searching before they find it.

For someone seeking a distributed file system, the intended usage of the /ipfs and /ipns directories is not communicated at all. I would expect a mounted file system to allow me to see the distributed files with the names of the files as they were added to the file system, not as internal file components. I would expect to be able read, write and list files that were added to the file system.

The /ipfs and /ipns are not for this purpose at all, resulting in considerable time spent to ultimately learn that the description of a FUSE file system is only technically correct but nowhere near what would be understood by an outsider or as seen in documentation such as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_distributed_file_systems

I did not find any documentation to communicate this basic fact.

[welcome]

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[aschmahmann]

@lonerzzz it sounds like you're looking for a mount for MFS and not for IPFS/IPNS. We could add an FAQ section to the page with some info about there not being an MFS mount.

Note: The FUSE implementation itself could also use some love, it seems likely that adding MFS support would come when we get to do an overhaul of the mount implementation itself.

[lonerzzz]

Adding to the FAQ section would be helpful, as would a brief explanation on this page (https://github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/blob/master/docs/fuse.md) for clarification. Ultimately, the most widely applicable use of a distributed file system is in allowing replication of files so any overhaul of the mount implementation that enables this would increase adoption of the solution.

[Erudition]

Same problem - just went through all that work to get /ipfs mount working so I could use my file explorer app to manage files... turns out it stays empty, and any folder name longer than one character is "too long".

[pirate]

😿 we ran into the same problem over here too: #7922